If your impression share is low, your ads are showing up less than they could be. That means you’re potentially losing traffic, leads, and sales — not because people aren’t searching, but because you’re not in the auction enough or not ranking high enough when you are.
What Is Impression Share?
Impression share tells you how much visibility your ads are getting compared to how much they could be getting. Think of it as your share of the digital shelf space on the search engine results page. It’s calculated as a percentage of impressions your ads received divided by the total number they were eligible for.
You’ll see different versions of this metric — Search Impression Share, Top Impression Share, and Absolute Top Impression Share — each showing where your ads are appearing and how often. Together, they give you a sense of how dominant your ads are in your category or niche.
Why It Matters
If your impression share is low, your ads are showing up less than they could be. That means you’re potentially losing traffic, leads, and sales — not because people aren’t searching, but because you’re not in the auction enough or not ranking high enough when you are.
It’s especially important when you’re trying to protect branded terms or own a key product category. A strong impression share means you’re showing up consistently — and that often translates to stronger results.
A Personal Example
Whilst managing a beauty e-commerce account, I noticed a dip in performance — fewer conversions, lower revenue, and a drop in traffic. After digging into the data, I found that Search Impression Share had dropped, mainly due to lost impressions from low rank.
We were doing something that had previously worked well: pinning the brand name in Headline 1 to keep brand visibility strong. But in this case, it was actually working against us — it limited ad strength and flexibility which Google Ads requires to test other combinations and match queries more effectively. I suggested unpinning the headline and testing more varied combinations instead.
The result? A noticeable 11% increase in top-of-page impression share and a 5% decrease in lost IS due to rank. A simple change, big impact.
Common Misconceptions About Fixing Impression Share
A lot of people assume that throwing more money at the campaign is the fix. But that’s not always the answer — especially if your issue isn’t budget-related.
Here are a few common pitfalls:
- Over-relying on budget. More money might get you more impressions, but not if your ad rank or quality is holding you back.
- Ignoring ad quality. A poor ad experience will lose out in the auction even with a competitive bid.
- Not diagnosing the cause. Impression share drops for different reasons — you need to look at why it’s dropping (budget vs. rank) to know how to fix it.
What You Can Actually Do to Improve Impression Share
Here are practical ways to increase your impression share — especially when budget isn’t the problem:
- Refine your keyword list. Use negative keywords to avoid irrelevant searches that dilute performance. Keep your targeting tight.
- Improve ad relevance. Match ad copy closely to user intent and make sure headlines clearly communicate value.
- Use ad assets. Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets — all help improve ad rank, visibility and performance.
- Unpin strategically. If you’re pinning headlines in RSAs, test unpinning to allow Google to optimise combinations and improve ad strength.
- Match landing pages. Make sure the destination is aligned with your ads. This improves user experience and helps your Quality Score.
- Group keywords effectively. Don’t overload ad groups. Keep them tightly themed to ensure the ad matches the query.
Final Thoughts
Impression share is more than a number — it’s a window into how often you’re showing up when it matters. Low impression share doesn’t always mean you need a bigger budget. Sometimes it’s about stepping back and asking: is my ad relevant? Am I showing up for the right searches? Is my copy doing the job?
Often, the fixes are simpler than you think — like unpinning a headline or tightening your targeting. The key is staying curious, testing intentionally, and not assuming budget is the only lever.
